Photo by Rachel Eliza Griffiths

Have you ever left a movie theater feeling like you just needed to drive around to reflect? Jeremy Clark and I were chatting before the interview about the movie Moonlight. He described it as one of those movies you just have to drive around afterwards. I can’t remember the last time a movie or book effected me in that way, but I knew right away what he meant. To get so enveloped in a thing that conjures far too many ideas, thoughts, and emotions.

From talking with Jeremy and what I’ve heard about it on NPR, Moonlight has some obvious parallels to Jeremy’s work. The story follows a young black man as he defines his identity dealing with questions of masculinity and belonging. Many of these same questions are asked in Jeremy’s poetry.

Jeremy Clark is my guest today. He is a southern poet born in Louisville, now living in the Bronx. Much of his writing are reflections on family, home, masculinity, and being a Black American. Jeremy is a Cave Canem Fellow, has taken part in the poetry project the Conversation, and is currently working on his thesis manuscript at Rutgers University.

We had a really great discussion during the holidays. We covered a lot of ground on subjects such as feeling like you never fit in, what being a good older sibling entails, and his projections for the next presidential administration.

You can learn more about Jeremy and read his work at jeremymichaelclark.com

Enjoy the discussion below or subscribe to the podcast using iTunes. You can also find Blind Date on Instagram, Tumblr, and Facebook.

Till next time..

Greetings listeners.

Obviously, we all know what an hour is, and how long it takes-60 minutes. But what does it feel like? Could you judge an hour’s worth of time without a clock? Or does even the idea of distancing yourself from such a device cause you anxiety?

With the world of schedules, business meetings, and appointments we’re all heavily reliant on time telling machines to help us be where we need to be when we need to be there. Some times though, an overly rigid schedule can have negative effects…

My guest today is Andy Cozzens. Andy is a professor at the Kentucky College of Art & Design as well as an established artist in Louisville’s art scene. He is incredible interested in the progression of time, and his work plays on our perception of it. With many of his pieces, he hopes the viewer finds a therapeutic quality and stop for a moment of calm. And much like interacting with Andy’s art, the creation requires taking time, slowing down—Andy does hours of tests, research, and planning for all his work. Andy is yet another victim of a full schedule, so these hours can be as beneficial as any meditation.

To learn more about Andy & his work, you can visit andrewcozzens.com.

As always, click the player below or subscribe to the podcast in the iTunes store.

Enjoy

Salutations Listeners.

I think it’s fair to say that creatives have unique ways of looking at the world. And I feel like these perspectives lead them into activism, or at least form some kind of opinion on current affairs. Saying this, places like 1619 Flux seem natural to me.

1619 Flux : Art+Activism is a community space and gallery in the Russell Neighborhood. The first line of their mission says it all: ‘ 1619 Flux is a non-profit organization that produces art events integrating established and emerging creative people from different racial, socioeconomic, demographic origins, and sexual orientations, and serves as an incubator for discussing and resolving social justice issues.’

1619 Flux hosts art exhibitions, participatory artistic events, skill-building demos & workshops for adults, and forums for discussing social justice issues. Exhibitions rotate seasonally, and the artists come from a broad range of backgrounds, with a focus on individuals from West Louisville.

For today’s episode, I spoke with Operations Director Michelle Bickelman and Artistic Director Jesse Levesque. We chat about what their near future holds, public art, the accessibility of art, and activism. I ramble a bit. Enjoy.

To learn more information, you can visit 1619flux.org. You can also find them on Facebook and Instagram.

Map by Ashley Brossart

Howdy listeners.

The other day I was thinking about how childhood memories, when looking back in retrospect, can be far more significant and formative than you once thought. For Ashley Brossart, one of those memories could be the mural her mother painted in her childhood home’s basement. It contained popular characters borrowed from television and coloring books—Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, stuff that made up so many 90’s kid’s lives. The influence of this collage style from her mother’s mural can be seen throughout Ashley’s work.

Louisville Map by Ashley Brossart

Ashley is my guest today. We chatted a little about her work last week in her studio. She is definitely a very hands on artist, and one that has a grasp on many styles & mediums. Her work is a natural consequence of all her experimentation, creating blended works full of movement. Ashley prefers large scale but she also has ongoing, kind of ‘creative geocaching’ projects, called Art Drops. With the Art Drop series ‘Places & Spaces Tucked Away‘, the found pieces recreate a map of sorts.

Ashley’s work tends to focus on how cities are always changing, and how we interact within them. With many of her pieces, she wants to give you the experience of exploring these urban locations. As an advocate of public art, Ashley is also a professional mural artist.

You can more of her work at ashleybrossart.com.

You can listen in to our chat using the player below, or subscribe to Blind Date on iTunes.

Hello listeners.

Recently I finished a book from the ‘Arcana‘ series. The specific volume I read was ‘Arcana V—music, magic, and mysticism.’ The book is full of essays on different creative processes based in some sort of magical method, philosophy, or belief system. And the results of these processes can manifest themselves in many different ways.

I’m not sure how much philosophy comes into play with the music of Shawna Dellecave & Jason Cox, but the name of their project is steeped in it. Their music project is called IamIs, which is a one word representation for all that is. And they tend to refer to their output as ‘Existential Pop Rock’.

Shawna and Jason are my guests today, and we discuss IamIs’s newest release ‘Go Supernovae!’ which was funded through a grant from the Kentucky Foundation of Women. IamIs has been intensely active since 2004 resulting in quite the prolific discography. They cover lots of ground musically, and especially lyrically with imagery based verses.

A thing that strikes me about Jason and Shawna is their community involvement. The discography I mentioned above is full of collaborations. And recently, they were featured on the ‘We Have A Bevin Problem—a Kentucky Music Compilation‘, which is a piece of social activism through music in response to the actions of Kentucky’s governor (the proceeds went to Planned Parenthood of KY & IN). Shawna is also a certified art therapist, and she recently has been working with other artists on a project with the Council On Developmental Disabilities.

You can find all things IamIs at these links:

IamIs.net

iamis.bandcamp.com

Gubbeyrecords.net

Of course, you can hear our discussion by subscribing to the podcast via iTunes, or use the player below.

Enjoy, guys.

Logo by Natalie Felker

Hey listeners.

Back in November 2014, I interviewed two women behind the local band Lady Pyramid. In the midst of the discussions, we talked about the first annual Louisville Outskirts Festival and Rockshops for Girls. If you haven’t heard of either you’re missing out! Louisville Outskirts fest is a music festival that highlights the women and gender nonconforming individuals in Louisville’s music community. Rockshops for Girls was a weekend long workshop where girls form bands and perform their first set of songs.

Since 2014, Outskirts & Rockshops have been going strong, expanding into a weeklong summer camp culminating in an ending showcase. With the help of the international organization Girls Rock Camp Alliance, Girls Rock Louisville was formed. In addition to what Rockshops offered, girls and gender nonconforming youth will now also get to record in a local recording studio, learn self defense, and hear lectures on creative processes and self love. All amazing things.

My guest today is a key organizer and counselor Riece Hamilton, formally of Girls Rock Jacksonville. She has come back home and brought the experience she had working in Jacksonville to Louisville. Our chat goes into further detail of what the camp is about, the activities, why she loves it, and the future of GRL.

During the interview, I kept wanting to gush about the program but really couldn’t find an intelligent way to do so… so here’s my attempt. There are so many young people who struggle with emotional and self esteem issues. More often than not, girls and gender nonconforming youth are constantly being held back both consciously and unconsciously. That’s why there is such a need for programs like these. Girls Rock Louisville offers them not just support and mentorship but also teaches self expression, how to form bonds, how to collaborate with others, and real-life examples in creative problem solving. These are tools that will better them in life, and better their communities as a result.

To learn more and volunteer with Girls Rock Louisville, visit girlsrocklouisville.org or their Facebook page.

To check out everywhere else Girls Rock is involved, go to girlsrockcampalliance.org.

As always, you can click the player below to hear the discussion.

Greetings listeners!

So, I know on the podcast there’s a lot of discussion about the internet and its effect on us as a culture, society, what have you. At this point, I almost feel I’m getting redundant. Of course, at the same time, I feel that the fact that it comes up so often in conversation says something—how it has changed daily life, communication, and creativity. My guest today is another artist who touches on themes of the digital world. Today’s episode is a discussion I had this week with LVA‘s Outreach Programs Coordinator Ehren Reed.

Ehren is a mixed media artist now based in Louisville. Before moving to Louisville, she studied in both Ohio and San Fransisco, where she started work in arts education and outreach. Ever since, Ehren has been deeply involved in community based programs.

Ehren’s artwork explores themes of the intangible, such as memory or digital media. Both of which have a ghostly quality that appears to be there and not at the same time. With her work she makes sense of this, and gives substance to such things by creating mixed media pieces involving embroidery, stitching, and old photography or digital images.

Listen in to our conversation below as we discuss her jump from painting to embroidery & book making, go on and on about StudioWorks, and try to figure out the internet.

To see what Ehren has been up to, art wise, check out her website ehrenreed.com.

Click the player to listen to our discussion.